Crime stats need better auditing

Improved auditing could lead to a rise in recorded crime statistics, according to Andrew Dilnot, chair of the UK Statistics Authority.

Dilnot made the claim a week after the UKSA withdrew national statistics designation from crime data recorded by the police, due to concerns over their reliability.

Speaking during a Public Administration Select Committee hearing yesterday, he said that reintroducing thorough auditing of the figures could help restore their accuracy. But he warned that “the introduction of a rigorous auditing process… could show an increase in the crimes recorded over the next little while.” This, he said “might lead to some interesting discussions.”

Dilnot said that he wishes the UKSA had been “swifter” to remove crime data from national statistics, adding that the authority could have made a decision six months earlier.

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